What's with Mike?

Feb 1 2010, The Lost Gl

2010-04-16T11:43:00.000-07:00

I went to the library to study, but in the course of my coming and goings one of my new, warm, fleece gloves went missing. I went frantically searching from the Library security desk, down the RB stairs, into the Smith Fieldhouse, back up the stairs, and finally it was in my Materials class room at the MARB. it was funny cause I was waving at a girl who was sitting in the place I was, and tried getting her attention. She finally threw it, though short, and I had to dart in and back out of some lecture. No shame. I got my glove back!

Jan 31 2010

2010-04-16T11:27:00.000-07:00

Sunday studies. Here I am breaking the Sabbath, frantically doing some Chemistry Micro Exams and Moral Leadership reading. No doubt it's late.

Jan 29 2010

2010-04-16T11:11:00.000-07:00

Racquetball match friday. Check out those graceful moves and form. I was still weary of hitting against the back wall so I always had to do these sort of moves.

Jan 28 2010, The Churro Challenge!

2010-03-08T23:22:00.000-08:00

Ok so these guys were part of some student organization, promoting how easy it was to apply for spring and summer scholarships. The churro challenge was to get the the top of the RB stairs in under 19 seconds. The logic being that applying was that easy. So if you got to the top in under 19 flat, you got a churro. See the stairs to the right? Now multiply that by 5 and you have the RB stairs. I did it in 8 flat with a backpack!

Jan 27 2010

2010-03-08T23:17:00.000-08:00

Well this is a typical sight to see in the winter. They plow the parking lots and just pile it up, taking some prime parking, so truckers and jeep owners seize the opportunity to show off their rigs. My roommate David Holgate actually got a ticket one day because he was so far up a snow pile, which was much bigger. The ticket cited unsafe parking, as the reason. It's times like these I wish I had a truck.

Jan 26 2010

2010-03-08T23:08:00.001-08:00

So...Birds or work. I couldn't decide on which picture to use. I'm kinda breaking the rules here, but Its my blog so I can do what I want. Here I am in the Richards Building pool, taking some personal time to study Materials notes during a forfeit of an inner-tube water polo game.

The cool thing about these birds was how close I could get to them. I used only one level of zoom to get this with my good ole Kodak CX 7430 I inherited from Mom. These guys were chowing down on those berries, and nothing else mattered. You could almost reach out and touch them. Kinda cool yet strange too see birds out on this cold January winter day.

Jan 25 2010

2010-03-08T23:00:00.001-08:00

So the point of the project is to capture your life, how you felt that day, or what you saw, and in a way give yourself a photo-journal. After a great high from the Farewell, I slammed head-on into a Monday. Here I am in the H. B. Lee Library (a shocker Anna!) in the oriental studies section, seriously down because of my studies. I just got out of Mechanics of Materials class, and as I recall we had a lecture about, centroids of planar areas, polar moments of inertia, the parallel axis theorem, and area moments of inertia. And for anyone who thinks I just made that up, just look it up in any engineering textbook. This stuff was just killing me and I was hating life!

Jan 24 2010

2010-03-08T22:39:00.000-08:00

So this was the start day of my project, though I didn't know it at the time. This picture was from the day Braedon Paramore gave his farewell talk. I wasted a lot of travel time taking a nap at Bryant Greens that afternoon but it worked out because I got to see Braedon again that night to take this picture and say good bye.

I got home late that night and couldn't go to sleep, so I pulled out my ipod touch and started to browse the app store for free, albeit ultimately useless apps and stumbled across the project 365 idea. And so it began...

After a long drought...I have returned!

2010-02-28T22:39:00.000-08:00

I'm turning my blog into my project 365. Its where you take a picture a day as a way of remembering what you did that day, capturing the imagery of something or someone you'd like to remember, as a sort of journal. Since I never used my blog for regular purposes, I think this would be a great use for it. I've already created a folder for it on my computer but with no real ability to tag a photo with some sort of short comment, I wanted to document what I was thinking or doing when I took the photo, before I slept too many times and forgot what was going on. I won't start uploading and tagging tonight but at least there's a internet commitment and hope to do it. Hope is that you can change things from wrong to right. Hope is to know you can have a better today, a better tomorrow.

So get ready folks, Mike's Project 365 is on its way!

2008-12-09T23:44:00.000-08:00

So here it is. I'm satisfying my sister by writing another blog entry, though it doesn't contain much, I've sort of switched over to facebook. I know there's little information and you'd have to be a friend to check me out but these days it's probably a good thing. You never know who's looking at you on the internet.

The Striped Fever!

2008-05-13T20:43:00.000-07:00

Hello all. It has been a long time since my last post. By now you should take that as no surprise though. Well to start things off I finished this semester of school, I had an easy load of 7 credits. Physics, History, and a fitness center course to fill in a credit. I also took the second half of the Book of Mormon in institute. Glad to say I graduated with an Associate Degree of Science, and also I graduated with a 2 year Degree in Institute. The institute completion was a surprise, I guess I wasn't focused on completing any particular requirements, but I got them notheless.

I turned 24 in April. My friends Timmy and Josh, and their wives Trini and Candace, threw me a rockin steak eatin' Kareoke Party.

During the past semester I was working two days a week when I didn't have school. It payed the bills and was good enough. OH! for those who didn't hear I got out of motorcycles for a little while. I sold my Blue Yamaha and also my KTM (I only had the KTM for 1 month). I got out of all my debt, and I even came out ahead with some money I made when I sold my VW Vanagon. I haven't been riding for a few months now. It doesn't bother me that much, it has been really dry and any group riding would have been miserable with all the dust that would have been kicked up.

So now that I've been out of school for the summer I have been available to work all week. Too bad there's no work. We have been working on a house in Pine Valley, but the homeowner hasn't been paying my boss, and he had enough of it. So last week instead of working for free we all took a trip to Lake Powell to go fishing for a few days.

We went out for striped bass, and normally the catch is abundant but in 2 days we only caught 26 or so. We all decided to stay for another day. We talked to this old timer and he gave us tips. We headed to town to get more whole anchovies which was our bait, special hooks that the old timer said to buy, some more snacks, and Subways for dinner. We got it all at WALMART! PAr tof the plan was to sleep on the boat because at dusk until night was one of the best times to catch. We did catch a bunch, we fished into the night until about 9:30. My boss Laymon and Jesse went to sleep in the back on the fold down seats and I slept in a sideways sort of curl with my feet hangin atop the bow in my sleeping bag with my pole baited and line in the water. I caught one fish at about 10:30. We all fell back asleep, and I threw my pole back into the water.

The night was kind of miserable, for the other two guys, But I was warm and comfy as could be in a semi-fetal position, and feet over the bow. The night was pretty bad, the wind was howling, the boat was rocking, we had to wake up often to pump water out of our leaking boat, and sometimes the hourly security inspections on the Glen Canyon Dam, woke us up. (We were parked on the security buoys which were about 700 yards or so from the actual dam. Its a customary and good spot to fish). At one point I woke up around 3A.M. I checked my pole which I was grasping through my sleeping bag. I was kinda disappointed, it felt like I had a snag but as I tried to free my line, it started wriggling, I reeled her in and plopped a fish in the back of the boat, where Laymon and Jesse were not-so-sound asleep now. I ACTUALLY CAUGHT A FISH IN MY SLEEP. Jesse got jealous and threw a few casts but didn't get anything so we all went back to sleep.

In the morning Laymon woke us all up to the sound of WOOHOO boys its fishing time, and he threw a fish into boat. We got a hold of ourselves, and around 6AM we threw in our anchovie baited lines and within seconds of casting we had fish on the line, it continued for another 45 minutes or so, until it got later and other boats showed up. We think being there all night gave us an edge, making us incognito. We caught a bunch more but stretched out over a few more hours.

It was a lot of fun and we saw some awesome scenery travelling through the channels and canyons to and from our spots. It was just a fantastic time. If you want anyomre pictures, just email me.

In all we caught 54 fish, mostly Striped Bass. We also caught 3 Walleye, a Bigmouth Bass, a Catfish, and my whopping Ring Perch.

I caught the most diverse amount of fish, the smallest and the longest, measuring 23 inches! I wish I could tell and remember all the funny things that happened. Just imagine putting 3 happy-go-lucky goof-off construction workers together on a boat for 3 days, you're bound to have lots of practical jokes. Like gassing the throttle as you "go" off the back of the boat. you also go crazy, I once thought I had a big fish when I really caught my line on the bow railing. The harder I pulled the harder the "fish" pulled.

We had a fish fry the other day with everyone's families and it wsa some good eatin'. Now I got the fishing bug. I've been fishing nearby 4 times in the last week. I just registered our Aluminum fishing boat and there will surely be more trips in the future.

THE END

The week before.

2008-02-20T18:57:00.000-08:00

So we've been doing a lot of riding lately. Last week Mark brought his camera and cut this video for us all to enjoy. The jumping was pretty fun. It was a new experience for me. I always sat in amazement watching "The Great Ride Open" a tv show on fueltv highlighting the Freestyle MX riders on a riding adventure. So when we came up to this jump I decided that I'd give it a shot. Mark and I sized up the jump for a while then we just gritted our teeth and went for it. To our surprise we made it to the downhill transistion. Duane was also there, in the firstsegment and then cameraman for Mark and I. Follow the trail...http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5504992240129907625&pr=goog-sl

A Good Day Gone Sour

2008-02-20T15:27:00.000-08:00

Well folks, myself and my motobuddies Mark, Duane, and Rob set out for a ride this afternoon. The terrain was great in most areas. We had to make fun of Mark though. He had his little tweety factory spark arrestor. We had to look twice to see if Mark was still going during the ride. We headed out past Stucki Springs and dropped into the Bloomington Caves wash heading back towards Champion Hill. We climbed back up through the canyon and stopped for a photo. Mark got some good news on his phone that he was addmitted into the Rhino Rally this weekend. We went a little further, until Mark blew his rear tire. We said our goodbyes and Duane, Rob and I continued to Champion hill. The dirt was perfect from there on. Lots of traction and no dust. From Champion Hill we charted an northward path on a trail we yet know the name of or given one to, in the direction of a hill we wanted to show Duane. But as we descended further rain moved in from the west and we bypassed much of the fun stuff and slipped through the slickrock an over to the SC River reserve. We were drenched. Too bad the weather went bad and for Mark's blowout but it was still a pretty good run.

It's just Mike

2008-01-28T20:00:00.000-08:00

Hiking to Angel's Landing in Zion N.P.

And Hanging out at the top

Jumping off the rock at Waimea Bay, North Shore

Ok by popular demand I'm posting pictures of myself. Apperrently a fan out there somewhere in the world wide interweb went to woodward at the same time I did.

Ok so actually so it wasn't popular demand that prompted this post. Unless you count one request as popular.

KTM trumps all!!

2008-01-15T18:50:00.000-08:00

Well Dakar is still in my mind but I have to think about other things too. As you can see the starting line to the race was deserted. If you didn't know the rally was cancelled this year due to TERRORIST THREATS! It's pretty sad that we have to be worried about these things to a point that a recreational venture is threatned. There was so much money wasted. The race was cancelled the day before the race but everyone and their equipment was in europe. Hundreds upon hundreds of competitors spent thousands of dollars in vehicle transportation alone.

If, for example I entered this year my expenditures would have totalled over $70,000. A race built bike, rally support for me, entry fee, and a few other things. Just imagine the professional teams with their budgets approaching millions of dollars and a years of preparation. Hopefully the entrants were refunded the entry fee but so much money was wasted this January. Terrorists need to be crushed and thus defeated. So my future in the race is yet to be seen. I've received my first pledge from a relative that will remain unnamed for the time, still waiting on others;) I've started my final semester for my 2 yr degree and expect to graduate this spring. No rings yet. The Vanagon is for sale and so is my motorcycle. Find me a buyer please. I'm looking for a different motorcycle called KTM, looks like a pumpkin eh? I'm looking for something like this. But well see what happens.

Work has been slow. We stopped the job in Pine Vally because of the weather. But St. George is dead. We've been able to find a few remodel jobs for a few days but we're only keeping our heads above the water. I may have to go put in my application for greeter at Wal-mart. LOL! In school I'm taking Physics and US history, and also working out for a class because I needed just .5 credits more. I was a bit upset at that because one day went in to talk with a counselor and she said I could graduate a half cr. short. the next day I went in and said the contrary. Arghhh! So since I could use the excercise I'm taking that class. TTFN

DAKAR 20??

2007-12-01T20:54:00.000-08:00

For some reason I've been thinking about the Lisbon-Dakar Rally lately. For those of you don't know, it is a race from Lisbon, Portugal, racing south through Spain, hopping on a ferry boat across the strait of Gibraltar-Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, and Eventually Dakar, Senegal. It lasts for around 2 weeks. Riding from dawn until late afternoon, on the wide openness of the African continent, stoping to sleep a few shy of a good night, whilst, mechanics that you hopefully have, do necessary repair to get you through the next days stage. Entrants, ride motorcycles, and Drive modified SUV types, and one of my favorite, 4x4 semi-trucks.

I got injured playing rugby the tuesday before Thanksgiving. I was a little laid up and I haven't been to work for the whole week. I could lift my arm at all. not separated but very sore. Anyway, the reason for saying that is while I've been home I started researching, what it takes to enter and finish the Dakar on a motorcycle. I happened upon a chap called Chris Jones. He made a website and diary covering his '07 Dakar entry and finish. Dakar has a 80% dropout rate. The chances for finishing are slim. But he did it. So I've been reading his extensive diary, trying to learn about this crazy race. I've watched the yearly race in awe and wonder since I was 16 or 17 on TV. And now I'm looking into really doing it. First off the costs are big to compete. The entry fee alone is $18,500. That covers race infrastructure. You have to provide the support truck and team, or buy services from official dealer support like KTM. (that's a motorcycle manufacturer based in Austria) Getting sponsors is helpful and key, unless you already have expendable funds. Guess what; that's not me. So I have been racking my brain on how I can raise money, start my own mini business, and save all that's sane to hopefully compete one day. If you have any ideas, generous or parsimonius donations or ideas on how to make some extra money, please let me know. My email is bangmika@gmail.com So that's what has been consuming me lately. Also I could use any help on finding sponsors for Dakar. Intellectual help and experience would be useful also. I have contacted this team called Rally Pan America. They put together a team and prep motorcycles for the race. They've already returned my mail and given me some helpful info according to my commitment and progress to Dakar. They also said they can prep a bike for me. I bet that won't be cheap! So here I am, Saturday night. Thnking about making a free or low cost way to make a website, to launch some of my ideas. If anyone can help with that I could use the direction.

Something else I would like to do is create a diary about my riding adventures on my current bike. I just have wanted to share the solitary enjoyment of being on the trail with others. I've told my family about some of the rides but it's never the same. I need a helmet camera to record it and share it. For now all I have is my cell-phone camera.

Tell your friends, help the cause, training for Dakar begins now... And don't forget to email me any ideas and help regarding anything I mentioned, along with your reaction. But I only want to hear encouragement. This is one of my dreams. Don't kill my dreams. Keep a look out for updates to my blog periodically. Cheers.

XR kills DUCATI!!!

2007-10-14T17:15:00.000-07:00

Ok folks. In the latest news, I've killed the Ducati craze... It's just so impractical. During the last 2 weeks I tested 2 ducatis. In Salt Lake, I came to realize that 1. its too dang cold to ride. (It was about 45 degrees with a slight drizzle) I was wearing my winter ski jacket, pants, shoes, and I was shivering uncontrollably at only 45mph. Yesterday I tried another one here in st. george. I came to the conclusion that buying a Ducati is unrealistic. I wanted to get a motorcycle for the street to save on gas. I realized that to enjoy the Ducati I would get in serious trouble with the law, or get seriously injured/killed in the process. I did a little acceleration test and within 5 seconds or so, I could have gotten the book thrown at me. NO WAY AM I GOING TO GET A DUC! Plus I didn't like the different feel on the street bikes. I'm too accustomed to off-road bikes. On paper and watching youtube videos it looks fun. So what will I do?...I'm going to retain my off-road nature. I want to get a Honda XR 400, pictured here. It was originally made for enduro (dayand night long distance riding) riding. I can pick one up for a good price, and they have bullet proof reliability! It can also be fitted with lights to mke it street legal. That way I can save on gas (60-70 mpg!) and still ride off-road for fun like I do now (not possible with the Ducati). Insurance is a lot cheaper too than an italian motorcycle. By the way, I can pay a whole year's insurance for the honda with the gas savings I get in 2 months. Now the catch- I gotta sell my yamaha and vanagon, so if you know anyone send them my way.

DUCATISTI!!!

2007-09-23T16:27:00.000-07:00

Well to start off with a little something. Our english professor revealed good news to us in class thursday. She met with the department, and long story short we are done with all of our writing assignments except for the final big research paper. It was a relief because we had a huge reading chunk every day after class and a 1-2 page summary of the reading due the next class day. So a big load was taken off there.

My lastest craze are DUCATIs again. I'm returning to this one for probably the 6th time. But I think I may follow through. I curently have both my motorcycle and vanagon up for sale. So if my craze lasts through the winter (it's too darn cold for bikes even if you bundle up) I will take the money from the two left over and buy myself a USED ducati monster. (I learned my lesson buying new, it's insanity! And more expensive being italian) Now I know you are all saying, "What's with Mike?" I just want to own a ducati, even if its for a short time. I'll still date and stuff so don't get worried about that. Since I can't just put my money in the bank to save it, I'll ride my money around town for a while. FYI I'm not going to be spending that much since the Monster model is the entry level Ducati (I've priced them around $4,000). If you like, take 40 seconds and watch this youtube(R) video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RieEOOKUbbQ to get a little taste in your belly for it. It's not the best one I've been watching but for some reason I can't find a cooler one. Oh wait I found another http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTcJR5L8dQY
I was going to buy a honda accord but I'll wait a little bit for that one. I'll just drive grandpa's old grey chevy again through the winter.
Oh and if you're wondering when your wedding invitation will arrive, it's in the mail. ;)

P.S. Talk about a rush http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U6MtflyNFo

Hey! I'm on.

2007-09-23T11:16:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I'm actually doing this blog thing. Actually it might not last long, but at at least I can say I'm hip, like everyone else. I'll be adding things shortly and it will consist of everthing and anything I wish to include: from me, my latest craze, to...Aawwwh Yeeaaah! Glenn Beck Stuff.